AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

Mr. BLEDsOE. Raise the average world price.

Mr. Fort. Raise the average world price at harvest time. Now,
[ think we agreed in our private talks that through the entire crop
year the average weighted price at which cotton sells, actual cotton
in the hands of the final consumers, represents pretty close the aver-
age weighted price that anybody can expect to say it is worth.

Mr. BLEDSOE. Yes.

Mr. Fort. Consequently, anything that tends to raise the weighted
price at any one period, such as the harvest period, will automatically
be reflected in a loss at any subsequent period.

Mr. BrepsoE. No, sir.

Mr. Fort. Because otherwise you would increase the economic
price of the entire crop.

Mr. BLepsoE. You will find out by studying that practically all of
that increase is for storage, insurance and interest, which results in
a slightly higher late season price over a period of years.

Mr. Fort. That is what I mean. When you get a part of that
profit in the harvest months where you now don’t get it, you will
get a little less for it in subsequent months.

Mr. BLEDSOE. Yes, but then you would not have a market at all,
and you would not get service unless you paid some profit to the
men that carried it.

Mr. Fort. I can see how you would get a profit; I can see where,
under your plan, he will get a little more in October and a little
less in May.

Mr. BLEpsoE. If you take 100 per cent of the cooperatives.

Mr. Fort. If we enter into this equalization fee proposal—and, I
am regarding these 20 years’ figures as interlocking, as vou have
explained them as interlocking.

Mr. BLEpsok. No, I don’t speak of them as interlocking.

Mr. Fort. Do you think the insurance plan would work without
the equalization fee?

Mr. BrepsoE. I subscribe + tha four proposals that have been
made here, Mr. Fort, and _ vou that T think they would
help carry the surplus.

Mr. Fort. Let me get this clear. You don’t regard the equaliza-
tion fee and insurance fee as entirely interlocked”

Mr. BLEDpsoE. No, sir. During the ordinary course of business,

the insurance premium will build up your cooperative so that in time
it will help to carry the surplus that is left over.
* Mr. Fort. If your insurance plan enables you to finance the de-
livery phase in the event you were caught on the early market,
would not that place you in a position so that you can show the value
of this plan so as to bring everybody in to your cooperative?

Mr. Brepsoe. Well, if I understand you, that is stating it back-
wards. It would apply to all the cooperatives. They would be in
a position to carry the surplus, and if this board did not want to
load it on to the cooperatives, they would have the equalization fee,
and could hire the cooperatives to carry it.

Mr. Fort. I am not disputing that. But, if you have your insur-
ance feature adequately financed, then you have gotten your coop-
eratives into the position where there is a real inducement to bring
the noncooperators in?

Mr. BLEDpsoE. Yes, that is it.

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